Answering your question will require a researcher to prove a negative
? something that can rarely be done successfully and an issue that
tends to scare most researchers off. However, I can offer this as a
?potential? answer for your consideration. Please let me know if this
will suffice:
Failure to report a witnessed crime, an attempted crime or a
conspiracy to commit a crime is not a crime itself in New York unless
the situation falls under some specific state statute that creates an
obligation to do so. For example, in some situations teachers,
lawyers, doctors and clergymen are required to report certain crimes
like child abuse, etc if those situations come to their attention. In
short, an employer in New York has no LEGAL obligation to report a
crime or to become involved in the investigation in any way, even
though there may be an understood ETHICAL or MORAL obligation to do
so. Depending on department policy there may also be a policy driven
obligation for the employer, as an supervising employee of the County
Government, to report such an offense if it involves the illegal
operation of government vehicles. Having said that, there may also be
a civil liability for failing to report the crime should an accident
occur and the matter was known but ignored.
In the US, the general rule is this: That which is not specifically
prohibited by law is assumed to be permissible under the law. There is
no New York statute that mandates a person to become involved in the
reporting of a traffic violation therefore it is assumed to be
permissible to ignore such an offense if one chooses to do so. Here
again, however, there may be civil, policy or ethical obligations that
reach beyond state law that could impact one?s decision to report the
crime. As I said, it is much more difficult to prove that any given
circumstance does NOT exist and much easier to prove that it DOES
exist. To put it in simpler terms, there is no New York state law book
that lists all the things a person CAN do, only that which persons
CANNOT do. Failure to report a minor traffic offense is not
specifically mentioned in the "CANNOT" book in the state of New York
so logically it is not specificlaly prohibited by criminal law, but it
may be an obligation that you have as an employer. I recommend you
consult your department policy manual for the answer to that part of
the question.
As for the crimial part of your question, is this the type of answer
you are looking for?
Regards;
Tutuzdad-ga

Clarification of Question by
danpdd-ga
on
27 Sep 2006 07:14 PDT

Just as clarification, the license check occurred as per our policy
for driving county cars. Once we know the employee does not have a
license, then we would not allow them to drive our cars, and if they
were or had been we would discipline or terminate.
The question is if, based upon our license check we know they do not
have a license, but we see them driving into and from work what are
our obiligations. Our policy does not address this type of situation.
But as public officers, where is our responsiblity.

As you will note from our disclaimer we cannot offer legal advice in a
formal way so, in an effort to meet my resposibilities I must point
this out as a matter of protocol. With that in mind let me say that
unless you are a law enforcement officer with a mandated obligation to
act on a criminal offense (police are required to enforce the law if
they see it broken), you are not (as far as I can determine according
to published law) mandated to take any action on a criminal matter
outside the scope of your employment and may do so (or not) only if
you choose to. Assuming the employee is not on the clock at the time
he drives in and drives out, the issue is simply the same as if you
saw him speeding on the way home. What he does off the job as a
private citizen is his own responsibility and if you choose to report
him (as a concerned private citizen or as County official) that is
your perogative. You are under no LEGAL obligation to report ANYONE'S
criminal activity outside the scope of your authority unless you just
WANT to.
Shall I post this as an official answer?
tutuzdad-ga

Clarification of Question by
danpdd-ga
on
27 Sep 2006 09:49 PDT

To tutuzdad-ga, I am willing to accept what you have done as an answer.

Dear danpdd-ga;
Thank you for allowing me to answer your question. As I said in my
earlier exchange with you, since there is no real way to support the
existence of a negative, there are no particularly meaningful search
terms in relation to your question. Having searched New York statutes
I found no laws that REQUIRE any citizen to report a minor traffic
offense when they become aware of one. Having said that, I am merely
going through the formality of reposting excerpts from our exchange
here in an effort to officially answer and close your question. I
remind you that our answers are not intended to substitute for
informed professional legal advice:
Failure to report a witnessed crime, an attempted crime or a
conspiracy to commit a crime is not a crime itself in New York unless
the situation falls under some specific state statute that creates an
obligation to do so. For example, in some situations teachers,
lawyers, doctors and clergymen are required to report certain crimes
like child abuse, etc if those situations come to their attention. In
short, an employer in New York has no LEGAL obligation to report a
crime or to become involved in the investigation in any way, even
though there may be an understood ETHICAL or MORAL obligation to do
so. Depending on department policy there may also be a policy driven
obligation for the employer, as an supervising employee of the County
Government, to report such an offense if it involves the illegal
operation of government vehicles. Having said that, there may also be
a civil liability for failing to report the crime should an accident
occur and the matter was known but ignored.
In the US, the general rule is this: That which is not specifically
prohibited by law is assumed to be permissible under the law. There is
no New York statute that mandates a person to become involved in the
reporting of a traffic violation therefore it is assumed to be
permissible to ignore such an offense if one chooses to do so. Here
again, however, there may be civil, policy or ethical obligations that
reach beyond state law that could impact one?s decision to report the
crime. As I said, it is much more difficult to prove that any given
circumstance does NOT exist and much easier to prove that it DOES
exist. To put it in simpler terms, there is no New York state law book
that lists all the things a person CAN do, only that which persons
CANNOT do. Failure to report a minor traffic offense is not
specifically mentioned in the "CANNOT" book in the state of New York
so logically it is not specifically prohibited by criminal law, but it
may be an obligation that you have as an employer. I recommend you
consult your department policy manual for the answer to that part of
the question.
With that in mind let me also say that unless you are a law
enforcement officer with a mandated obligation to act on a criminal
offense (police are required to enforce the law if they see it
broken), you are not (as far as I can determine according to published
law) mandated to take any action on a criminal matter outside the
scope of your employment and may do so (or not) only if you choose to.
Assuming the employee is not on the clock at the time he drives in and
drives out, the issue is simply the same as if you saw him speeding on
the way home. What he does off the job as a private citizen is his own
responsibility and if you choose to report him (as a concerned private
citizen or as County official) that is your prerogative. You are under
no LEGAL obligation to report ANYONE'S minor criminal activity outside
the scope of your authority unless you just WANT to.
I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
LAWS OF NEW YORK
(Consolidated and Unonsolidated Laws)
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS
NEW YORK
LAW
STATUTES
CONSOLIDATED LAW
UNCONSOLIDATED LAW

danpdd-ga
rated this answer:

Difficult question to provide a definitive answer to but appreciate
the effort put into it.

If the employee is required to drive as part of his job, (if for
instance, the employee is a truck driver), and the employer knows
about the license issue, then the employer could get into big trouble.
I'm not sure about the case of an employee being a regular joe schmoe.

I would suggest that as a government office, the employer should
advice the employee in writing that it is aware that the person is
driving privately while his license is suspended and mention any
possible effect his being caught could have on his employment, also
advising that a copy of the letter will go in his personnel file, to
be removed when his license is reinstated - if nothing happens.
This will make him aware that it is known that he is driving without a
license (something one in that position likes to forget), and aware of
possible consequences he has not recognized, and also may possibly
protect the employer from accusations that it had knowingly condoned
the situation without taking any action.
The promise to remove the letter if nothing happens will let him know
that his offense remains a private matter with no further
ramifications to his job - if nothing happens.
Tell him in the letter to inform the personnel dept. when his license
is returned, thus making it his responsibility to assure that the
letter is removed from his file.

Even if you report him, I doubt the authorities would act UNLESS they
actually saw him behind the wheels. Even so, he will have to have
been pulled over for some type of infraction for the licence issue to
come up. Since, (I suppose) he is now reassigned to desk job, the
police can't just walk in and demand to see his valid driver's
licence, which would be ridiculous. But, as the disclaimer states,
this is NO legal opinion. Best wishes!

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